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The Confederate surrender at Appomattox marked the end of the United States Civil War. Here is where we see a reconstruction to rebuild the South as well as integrate the newly freed slaves. We saw the expansion of the United States government's power, which included a much stronger military presence in the South. Industrialization, with the expansion of railroads, was driven by war and helped to facilitate westward movement along with the displacement of Native Americans. Also, a new interest had emerged with the attention directed towards Alaska, allowing for the purchase from Russia, which signified a clear interest in expanding territory within the United States. The significance of the end of the Civil War was a consolidation of internal power, coupled with the growth of a new industry, allowing for the economic and military foundation to be laid, springboarding future overseas empire building.

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NOTE TO READERS
"Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations" has been retired and is no longer maintained. For more information, please see the full notice.

In the wake of the Civil War, the United States continued to expand into new territory and new markets.

Russian ratification of the Alaska purchase, June 1867

In 1867, the U.S. nearly doubled its holdings with the purchase of the territory of Alaska from the Russians. During this period, U.S. economic power grew, driven by new inventions in communication and transportation that closed the distance from coast to coast, and by a massive influx of immigration that sparked an explosion of industrialization and urbanization throughout the country. The combination of high productivity and the industrial revolution resulted in a production rate that vastly outstripped that which people in the United States could consume. Following two devastating economic recessions, U.S. foreign policy leaders focused on finding foreign markets to absorb excess goods. This renewed emphasis on exploring international business opportunities resulted in a buildup of U.S. naval forces to protect commercial shipping and overseas interests.

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Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian

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The Spanish-American War marked the United States' becoming a colonial power. This war with Spain over Cuba was launched with the explosion of the USS Maine, combined with yellow journalism. As a result of the war, the United States gained control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, along with Cuba, becoming a protector for the United States. Also, this year, we saw the annexation of Hawaii. Those who look back may wonder about the motivations for the United States; however, they become clearer the more you look. Economic interest that involved sugar along with trade routes was one driving factor. Naval strategy, along with the usual nationalist ideals, was also a contributing factor in the United States' involvement. In this anti-colonial war in the Philippines against the United States occupation, resistance held great significance for this event. The Spanish-American War's role in developing the American empire was quite significant. Many see this as the birth of the empire overseas as the United States joined other imperial powers to control territories across oceans and seas.

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The last decades of the 19th century were a period of imperial expansion for the United States. The American story took a different course from that of its European rivals, however, because of the U.S. history of struggle against European empires and its unique democratic development.

The sources of American expansionism in the late 19th century were varied. Internationally, the period was one of imperialist frenzy, as European powers raced to carve up Africa and competed, along with Japan, for influence and trade in Asia. Many Americans, including influential figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Elihu Root, felt that to safeguard its own interests, the United States had to stake out spheres of economic influence as well. That view was seconded by a powerful naval lobby, which called for an expanded fleet and network of overseas ports as essential to the economic and political security of the nation. More generally, the doctrine of " manifest destiny," first used to justify America's continental expansion, was now revived to assert that the United States had a right and duty to extend its influence and civilization in the Western Hemisphere and the Caribbean, as well as across the Pacific.

At the same time, voices of anti-imperialism from diverse coalitions of Northern Democrats and reform-minded Republicans remained loud and constant. As a result, the acquisition of a U.S. empire was piecemeal and ambivalent. Colonial-minded administrations were often more concerned with trade and economic issues than political control.

The United States' first venture beyond its continental borders was the purchase of Alaska - sparsely populated by Inuit and other native peoples - from Russia in 1867. Most Americans were either indifferent to or indignant at this action by Secretary of State William Seward, whose critics called Alaska "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox." But 30 years later, when gold was discovered on Alaska's Klondike River, thousands of Americans headed north, and many of them settled in Alaska permanently. When Alaska became the 49th state in 1959, it replaced Texas as geographically the largest state in the Union.

The Spanish-American War, fought in 1898, marked a turning point in U.S. history. It left the United States exercising control or influence over islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific.

By the 1890s, Cuba and Puerto Rico were the only remnants of Spain's once vast empire in the New World, and the Philippine Islands comprised the core of Spanish power in the Pacific. The outbreak of war had three principal sources: popular hostility to autocratic Spanish rule in Cuba; U.S. sympathy with the Cuban fight for independence; and a new spirit of national assertiveness, stimulated in part by a nationalistic and sensationalist press.

By 1895 Cuba's growing restiveness had become a guerrilla war of independence. Most Americans were sympathetic with the Cubans, but President Cleveland was determined to preserve neutrality. Three years later, however, during the administration of William McKinley, the U.S. warship Maine, sent to Havana on a "courtesy visit" designed to remind the Spanish of American concern over the rough handling of the insurrection, blew up in the harbor. More than 250 men were killed. The Maine was probably destroyed by an accidental internal explosion, but most Americans believed the Spanish were responsible. Indignation, intensified by sensationalized press coverage, swept across the country. McKinley tried to preserve the peace, but within a few months, believing delay futile, he recommended armed intervention.

The war with Spain was swift and decisive. During the four months it lasted, not a single American reverse of any importance occurred. A week after the declaration of war, Commodore George Dewey, commander of the six-warship Asiatic Squadron then at Hong Kong, steamed to the Philippines. Catching the entire Spanish fleet at anchor in Manila Bay, he destroyed it without losing an American life.

Meanwhile, in Cuba, troops landed near Santiago, where, after winning a rapid series of engagements, they fired on the port. Four armored Spanish cruisers steamed out of Santiago Bay to engage the American navy and were reduced to ruined hulks.

From Boston to San Francisco, whistles blew and flags waved when word came that Santiago had fallen. Newspapers dispatched correspondents to Cuba and the Philippines, who trumpeted the renown of the nation's new heroes. Chief among them were Commodore Dewey and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who had resigned as assistant secretary of the navy to lead his volunteer regiment, the "Rough Riders," to service in Cuba. Spain soon sued for an end to the war. The peace treaty signed on December 10, 1898, transferred Cuba to the United States for temporary occupation preliminary to the island's independence. In addition, Spain ceded Puerto Rico and Guam in lieu of war indemnity, and the Philippines for a U.S. payment of $20 million.

Officially, U.S. policy encouraged the new territories to move toward democratic self-government, a political system with which none of them had any previous experience. In fact, the United States found itself in a colonial role. It maintained formal administrative control in Puerto Rico and Guam, gave Cuba only nominal independence, and harshly suppressed an armed independence movement in the Philippines. (The Philippines gained the right to elect both houses of its legislature in 1916. In 1936 a largely autonomous Philippine Commonwealth was established. In 1946, after World War II, the islands finally attained full independence.)

U.S. involvement in the Pacific area was not limited to the Philippines. The year of the Spanish-American War also saw the beginning of a new relationship with the Hawaiian Islands. Earlier contact with Hawaii had been mainly through missionaries and traders. After 1865, however, American investors began to develop the islands' resources - chiefly sugar cane and pineapples.

When the government of Queen Liliuokalani announced its intention to end foreign influence in 1893, American businessmen joined with influential Hawaiians to depose her. Backed by the American ambassador to Hawaii and U.S. troops stationed there, the new government then asked to be annexed to the United States. President Cleveland, just beginning his second term, rejected annexation, leaving Hawaii nominally independent until the Spanish-American War, when, with the backing of President McKinley, Congress ratified an annexation treaty. In 1959 Hawaii would become the 50th state.

To some extent, in Hawaii especially, economic interests had a role in American expansion, but to influential policy makers such as Roosevelt, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and Secretary of State John Hay, and to influential strategists such as Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, the main impetus was geostrategic. For these people, the major dividend of acquiring Hawaii was Pearl Harbor, which would become the major U.S. naval base in the central Pacific. The Philippines and Guam complemented other Pacific bases - Wake Island, Midway, and American Samoa. Puerto Rico was an important foothold in a Caribbean area that was becoming increasingly important as the United States contemplated a Central American canal.

U.S. colonial policy tended toward democratic self-government. As it had done with the Philippines, in 1917 the U.S. Congress granted Puerto Ricans the right to elect all of their legislators. The same law also made the island officially a U.S. territory and gave its people American citizenship. In 1950 Congress granted Puerto Rico complete freedom to decide its future. In 1952, the citizens voted to reject either statehood or total independence, and chose instead a commonwealth status that has endured despite the efforts of a vocal separatist movement. Large numbers of Puerto Ricans have settled on the mainland, to which they have free access and where they enjoy all the political and civil rights of any other citizen of the United States.

The canal and the Americas

The war with Spain revived U.S. interest in building a canal across the isthmus of Panama, uniting the two great oceans. The usefulness of such a canal for sea trade had long been recognized by the major commercial nations of the world; the French had begun digging one in the late 19th century but had been unable to overcome the engineering difficulties. Having become a power in both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the United States saw a canal as both economically beneficial and a way of providing speedier transfer of warships from one ocean to the other.

At the turn of the century, what is now Panama was the rebellious northern province of Colombia. When the Colombian legislature in 1903 refused to ratify a treaty giving the United States the right to build and manage a canal, a group of impatient Panamanians, with the support of U.S. Marines, rose in rebellion and declared Panamanian independence. The breakaway country was immediately recognized by President Theodore Roosevelt. Under the terms of a treaty signed that November, Panama granted the United States a perpetual lease to a 16-kilometer-wide strip of land (the Panama Canal Zone) between the Atlantic and the Pacific, in return for $10 million and a yearly fee of $250,000. Colombia later received $25 million as partial compensation. Seventy-five years later, Panama and the United States negotiated a new treaty. It provided for Panamanian sovereignty in the Canal Zone and transfer of the canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.

The completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, directed by Colonel George W. Goethals, was a major triumph of engineering. The simultaneous conquest of malaria and yellow fever made it possible and was one of the 20th century's great feats in preventive medicine.

Elsewhere in Latin America, the United States fell into a pattern of fitful intervention. Between 1900 and 1920, the United States carried out sustained interventions in six Western Hemispheric nations - most notably Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. Washington offered a variety of justifications for these interventions: to establish political stability and democratic government, to provide a favorable environment for U.S. investment (often called dollar diplomacy), to secure the sea lanes leading to the Panama Canal, and even to prevent European countries from forcibly collecting debts. The United States had pressured the French into removing troops from Mexico in 1867. Half a century later, however, as part of an ill-starred campaign to influence the Mexican revolution and stop raids into American territory, President Woodrow Wilson sent 11,000 troops into the northern part of the country in a futile effort to capture the elusive rebel and outlaw Francisco "Pancho" Villa.

Exercising its role as the most powerful - and most liberal - of Western Hemisphere nations, the United States also worked to establish an institutional basis for cooperation among the nations of the Americas. In 1889 Secretary of State James G. Blaine proposed that the 21 independent nations of the Western Hemisphere join in an organization dedicated to the peaceful settlement of disputes and to closer economic bonds. The result was the Pan-American Union, founded in 1890 and known today as the Organization of American States (OAS).

The later administrations of Herbert Hoover (1929-33) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45) repudiated the right of U.S. intervention in Latin America. In particular, Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy of the 1930s, while not ending all tensions between the United States and Latin America, helped dissipate much of the ill-will engendered by earlier U.S. intervention and unilateral actions.

The United States and Asia

Newly established in the Philippines and firmly entrenched in Hawaii at the turn of the century, the United States had high hopes for a vigorous trade with China. However, Japan and various European nations had acquired established spheres of influence there in the form of naval bases, leased territories, monopolistic trade rights, and exclusive concessions for investing in railway construction and mining.

Idealism in American foreign policy existed alongside the desire to compete with Europe's imperial powers in the Far East. The U.S. government thus insisted as a matter of principle upon equality of commercial privileges for all nations. In September 1899, Secretary of State John Hay advocated an "Open Door" for all nations in China - that is, equality of trading opportunities (including equal tariffs, harbor duties, and railway rates) in the areas Europeans controlled. Despite its idealistic component, the Open Door, in essence, was a diplomatic maneuver that sought the advantages of colonialism while avoiding the stigma of its frank practice. It had limited success.

With the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Chinese struck out against foreigners. In June, insurgents seized Beijing and attacked the foreign legations there. Hay promptly announced to the European powers and Japan that the United States would oppose any disturbance of Chinese territorial or administrative rights and restated the Open Door policy. Once the rebellion was quelled, Hay protected China from crushing indemnities. Primarily for the sake of American good will, Great Britain, Germany, and lesser colonial powers formally affirmed the Open Door policy and Chinese independence. In practice, they consolidated their privileged positions in the country.

A few years later, President Theodore Roosevelt mediated the deadlocked Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, in many respects a struggle for power and influence in the northern Chinese province of Manchuria. Roosevelt hoped the settlement would provide open-door opportunities for American business, but the former enemies and other imperial powers succeeded in shutting the Americans out. Here as elsewhere, the United States was unwilling to deploy military force in the service of economic imperialism. The president could at least content himself with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize (1906). Despite gains for Japan, moreover, U.S. relations with the proud and newly assertive island nation would be intermittently difficult through the early decades of the 20th century.
Source Citation:
"An Outline of American History," United States Information Agency. https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/history/ch7.htm#ambivalent

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The last decades of the 19th century were a period of imperial expansion for the United States. The American story took a different course from that of its European rivals, however, because of the U.S. history of struggle against European empires and its unique democratic development.

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1917-1918 - United States Entry Into World War I

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1917-1918 - United States Entry Into World War I

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After unrestricted submarine warfare combined with the Zimmerman telegram, the United States declared war on Germany. Millions of troops and supplies were immobilized by the United States, allowing for the balance to be tipped towards the allies. At the time, Woodrow Wilson outlined a vision for what could only be described as a new global order. This has come to be known as Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points. The impact of this event was on many different fronts, but most notably, it contributed to the United States ' emergence as a global military and economic powerhouse. Also, President Wilson's League of Nations would not include the United States. World War I was a major ideological event for the United States of America. The United States perceived itself as having a moral duty to assist in shaping the world. This also allowed for a justification for future interventions by the United States under the ideals of democracy. These justifications are still true today as the United States continues to involve itself in global conflicts under similar ideological justification.

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World War I Was the Dawn of America’s Era of Global Leadership

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Most notably for the United States were the events during World War II. An argument could certainly be made that this war truly made the United States a superpower. But the events at Pearl Harbor, United States, triggered a world war where the fight is fucked on both the Pacific and European fronts. The event that Pearl Harbor did was change the United States of America from isolationist to entering the war. The United States began campaigns in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific, becoming one of the most extensive wars for this country. What was most influential came at the end of the war with the development and eventual use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II events saw the United 's' founding, the IMF, the World Bank, and a global economy based on the dollar. World War II had incredible and irreversible significance not just for the United States and the world. World War II confirmed that the United States was a global superpower, which meant they had the most significant military and economy, and had a brief moment in which they were a nuclear monopoly. Through the events of World War II, the American empire grew, gaining remarkable global influence for the United States.

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The aftermath of World War I confirmed the importance of isolationism to many Americans. The "war to end all wars" ultimately failed to live up to its name, and Americans were wary of once again of getting involved in foreign conflicts. Before the start of World War II, the idea of the United States as a leading global power was not an ambition of American politicians. Most Americans remained content to let other powers, such as Great Britain, fill that role. By the end of World War II, however, the United States stood as one of two leading global powers, alongside the Soviet Union, which had experienced a similarly unexpected rise to power. Far from the isolationism that characterized US global politics, the immediate aftermath of World War II established a clear desire among American political and economic leaders to protect this newfound power and to secure the United States as the leader of the "free world."
The Rising Power of the Dollar
At end of nineteenth century, the British pound was more than double in value to its closest competitor, which included the French franc and the German mark. American dollars could not compete with European currencies. The strength of the British pound continued to persist, but its preference as a standard currency for global commerce was weakening over time. Economic scholars Menzie Chinn and Jeffrey Frankel argued that the waning power of the British pound, hit by two world wars and a global economic depression, allowed the American dollar to surpass the once robust British currency. By 1945, the status of the dollar and the pound had essentially flipped. Within a few decades, the United States transformed from an isolationist, inward-looking power with minimal presence on the global stage to an economic powerhouse that controlled the most valuable currency in international markets. How did such a remarkable transformation occur?

The decades before the start of World War I revealed signs of a strengthening US economy. The overall size of the American economy had surpassed United Kingdom as early as 1872 and continued to grow. As Chinn and Frankel pointed out, following 1914, "the US passed from net debtor to net creditor as the UK moved in the opposite direction. This had much to do with British borrowing from the United States to fight World War I." In the successive years, US exports pulled ahead of those made in the United Kingdom. The dollar maintained stability in the 1920s, emerging as a major international currency, but due to the global depression of the 1930s, the pound retained the dominant position as the key currency of the interwar period. However, by the end of World War II, the pound could no longer compete. War, decolonization, and declining economic strength abroad dealt a lasting blow to the United Kingdom and ushered in a new era of American dominance in the arena of global influence and economic strength.

The arsenal of democracy that Franklin D. Roosevelt called into existence when the United States entered World War II proved to be a valuable investment in the American economy. By 1945, the United States was manufacturing more than half of the produced goods in the world. US exports made up more than one-third of the total global exports, and the United States held roughly two-thirds of the available gold reserves. The sudden onset of this new position of economic power presented the United States with a number of new responsibilities. The actions of American leaders would no longer only affect citizens in the United States. Such actions proved to have long-reaching repercussions across the globe.
Bretton Woods Conference
The emerging economic power of the United States came into focus even before World War II came to an end. During a conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, from July 1-22 in 1944, delegates from 44 nations met to discuss the postwar global order and establish a new international monetary system. This conference was held in an effort to avoid another global economic depression similar to the one that occurred in the interwar period. The theory that partnerships built on trade and economic ties would help discourage the outbreak of another world war led to the construction of a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Both the IMF and the World Bank were established in Washington DC, and these organizations aimed to monitor the movement, to use of funds between nations, and to provide loans to countries experiencing economic hardship. At the Bretton Woods Conference, exchange rates were linked to gold reserves, and with the United States holding the bulk of the gold reserves in the world, the dollar emerged as the new reserve currency for international commerce and trade. While the IMF would oversee the maintenance of this new global economic system, the United States and the dollar emerged as the economic standard bearers for the postwar world.
United Nations
The leading role occupied by the United States following World War II grew through the creation of the United Nations in 1945. Meeting in San Francisco, delegates from 50 countries created a charter for this new international organization, founded to prevent the outbreak of another world war. Poland later signed on, bringing the founding number of countries to 51. With the UN Charter agreed upon, the United Nations formally came into existence on October 24, 1945.

We the Peoples of the United Nations poster courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, 516086.

The UN built upon American President Woodrow Wilson's idea for a League of Nations created after World War I. Based on an American idea and promoted by Roosevelt through conferences held between the Allied powers throughout World War II, the United States signed on to the UN Charter as one of its most influential members. The United States became one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and the United States continues to be one the largest financial contributors to the United Nations.
Marshall Plan
Emerging from World War II as a leading power, the United States took on an active role in rebuilding the war-torn cities left in the wake of this unprecedented conflict. Turning away from its previous role as an isolationist power, US leaders created the Postwar European Recovery Plan (ERP) that pumped over $13 billion into the rebuilding of Western Europe. Headed by Secretary of State George Marshall, the effort known as the " Marshall Plan " helped bolster the economic strength and international prominence of the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Standing in stark contrast to the isolationism that dominated US foreign policy following World War I, the Marshall Plan confirmed that the United States would remain engaged and active on the global stage. The United States approached the restoration of Western European economies as an investment in the preservation of peace and protection of markets for American goods. The underlying belief running through the Marshall Plan held that countries that traded together were less likely to wage war against each other.

Rebuilding the war-torn countries of Western Europe not only helped avoid another economic depression, but it also contributed to the growing competition for global dominance between the United States and the USSR. The emerging conflict between capitalist and communist countries fueled the desire of American leaders to ward off the presence of communism in Western Europe in favor of capitalist ventures. As much as the United States invested in the rebuilding of economic markets to promote its own goods and to prevent the outbreak of another global war, the Marshall Plan served as a conduit for the spread of capitalism across Western Europe, hindering the global power and influence of the Soviet Union.

Jacob A. Malik (R. Soviet Union) of the United Nations Security Council, casting a vote. Courtesy of National Archives, 541950.

Similar concerns influenced efforts to restructure the Japanese economy following a period of punishment and governmental reform overseen by General Douglas MacArthur, head of the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP) in Japan. With China on the cusp of a communist revolution, SCAP sought to rebuild Japan's industry sector in a way that would restrict military strength and prevent the growth of communist interests. Part of the postwar economic restructuring included dissolving large-scale Japanese business conglomerates known as . Controlled by only a few prominent families, the zaibatsu held monopolies over much of the imperial Japanese economy, particularly in the industrial sector. In order to secure control over the rebuilding and restructuring of Japanese industry, SCAP launched an attack on the zaibatsu, forcing the dissolution of these family-run monopolies and shifting more economic power to small businesses and Japanese farmers. However, these progressive moves also increased fears that communism might take hold in Japan. While the Marshall Plan aimed to prevent the outbreak of subsequent wars while also warding off communist influence from the Soviet Union, the start of the Korean War in 1950 provided the capitalist boost for Japanese industries that American leaders sought, as Japan became the primary supplier of goods for UN forces throughout the war.

"New Markets and Industries"

By investing in the reconstruction of countries devastated by World War II, the United States created new markets to export American goods. Products like Coca-Cola became desired commodities abroad and helped to promote the exportation of US culture. The demand for American-made goods-along with the movement of people on US commercial airlines like Pan Am or with travelers staying in American-run hotels abroad like the Hilton chain-established the United States as a global economic leader. The dominance of the American economy in the global marketplace after World War II brought significant changes to the way Americans lived their daily lives. The new prosperity led to the rise of a consumer society across the United States, with emerging middle class eagerly purchasing goods such as cars and televisions. The economic boom that followed World War II not only changed the way Americans lived each day, but it also established the United States as both a cultural leader abroad and an economic leader amongst all other nations.

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Great Responsibilities and New Global Power | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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World War II transformed the United States from a midlevel global power to the leader of the "free world." With this rapid rise in power and influence, the United States had to take on new responsibilities, signaling the beginning of the "American era."

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This era in the American empire saw the war waged against communism. This year saw a wide range of conflicts over multiple decades and continents. The Korean War saw US forces lead UN forces in all of South Korea. The Vietnam War was a significant conflict focused on stopping the spread of communism. This war was lost for many reasons and only ended when the United States had true troops. With multiple CIA cruises taking place, the war in Latin America saw the Atella in Chile conflict take place. Then, what most of us are familiar with today is the conflict in the Middle East. There was an overthrow of Iran's Mossadegh in 1953. The United States displayed support for Italy, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, this year also saw a significant increase in military buildup with such things as nuclear arsenal and the development of NATO—this time. The Cold War consisted of covert operations, propaganda, and economic aid—this time. The American empire's development was significant as the Cold War expanded the United States ' military and intelligence globally. This growth in the American empire was justified under the name of freedom; however, the United States sometimes supported authoritarian regimes. This could be evidence of the true nature of the United States' actions based on self-interest, primarily to further the American empire.

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In the slightly less than a hundred years from 1898 to 1994, the U.S. government has intervened successfully to change governments in Latin America a total of at least 41 times…

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The Gulf War was a genuine turning point for the American empire. This war began when Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States' Operation Desert Storm sought to push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. This war taught me about a fast and technologically advanced fighting style. The United States gained international support, including from the United Nations. US troops were also stationed in Saudi Arabia, causing some backlash. What this war did was set the stage for future involvement in Iraq. This war also demonstrated the US's capabilities to lead multiple coalitions and can affect the global response to conflicts. This era in the American empire saw the United States as the international police and sole superpower.

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On Nov. 8th, two days after the American elections, and without consulting Congress or the American people, President Bush announced that he was nearly …

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This era in the American empire has truly seen the American empire expand to great lengths by involving itself in global conflict. This era was initiated with the tragic events of September 11. The attacks by Al-Qaeda on the World Trade Center in New York City sparked military action that would eventually extend for two decades and multiple countries. The Afghanistan war was the beginning of this American empire expansion and saw the capture of the engineer behind September 11. The longest war in US history aimed to defeat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban during this time. We also saw a war in Iraq, based on the claims of weapons of mass destruction present, which ultimately led to a regime change, Civil War, and what most would say the rise of ISIS. Globally, we saw drone strikes and covert operations, and countries such as Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria, regime changes, and massive surveillance, leading to the expansion of homeland security as a result of this era. Many made accusations of imperial overreach, human rights violations, and destabilization of many areas. The cost was significant. The significance of this era in the American Empire fueled the limits of the United States' power, along with an anti-American sentiment. There is a debate over the precise role of the American government globally and where the American empire belongs. Huge involvement and conflicts cause many at home to question the military-industrial conflict.

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For young people growing up in the U.S. today, war is the norm.

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2020-Present - Retrenchment With Strategic Competition

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2020-Present - Retrenchment With Strategic Competition

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This era included the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ended 20 years of the United States' presence. The focus shifted towards China and Russia—the global technology competition has garnered much of the United States' attention. We see new tools such as economic sanctions against Russia and Iran. The trade war started, and there was some revitalization of alliance-building. The military posturing now pivots towards the end of the Pacific War, showing Support in 2022 for the Russian-Ukrainian War. Although the US remains dominant, it faces more competition and rising nationalism abroad. At home, skepticism grows regarding the actual cost of this American empire. The American empire's future remains uncertain, but new leadership looks more optimistic. It is believed that, although the United States has a history of mistakes, compounded by constant intervention in global conflict, the reality is that a strong America generally benefits the world. The Western way of life has undoubtedly led to a better quality of life for millions. Policies that ultimately put America first will, in the end, also benefit the allies of this country. After all, elected officials who are elected by the people, and for the people, should always put American interests first.

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Breakingviews - New US Asia pivot is better timed than the last

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In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced America’s “pivot to Asia”– only for conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine to bog him down. In Brussels last week, however, newly installed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth renewed the United States’s pledge to refocus on China. It might seem that Uncle Sam has left it a bit late, given the Middle Kingdom’s rise in the intervening years. Yet emerging fault lines in China’s economic strategy suggest that now might be an opportune moment for the pivot after all.